


Brief Passage of Void Fraught Memories

by SonOfDysonSphere



Category: Touhou Project
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 05:51:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17218205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonOfDysonSphere/pseuds/SonOfDysonSphere
Summary: The impurities of the Earth require diligent cleansing for Lunarians each cycle. To immortals, however, time is not kind. Introspection and Immortal Worries. Written for a Dear Friend.





	Brief Passage of Void Fraught Memories

The transition from Winter to Spring had been as immediate as the minute minute difference between both sides of midnight. Seemingly with the snap of a finger or the turn of a coin in flight, the frost perpetuating climate ceased and was replaced with life nurturing air as if both conditions were passing a baton in a relay race. The sudden change in weather in Gensokyo caused Kaguya Houraisen to feel overdressed in her insulated winter kimono as she approached the outdoor pool her servants had prepared for her purifying bath.

The warm lucid water of the pool steamed into the cool night air, magic keeping its temperature exact, inviting Kaguya with a perfect reflection of the full moon across its undisturbed surface. With her servants assistance, the kimono wrapping her was removed and skillfully folded to the side. Those present showed neither signs of averting their gaze nor openly staring at her crystal calcite skin as her careful steps crossed cold stone, her feet leaving her sandals and breaking the mirror surface of the pool. The lead foot found the first submerged step before the other overtook it to the next, the former moon princess continued this careful and deliberate pattern until she was entirely wrapped while standing in the warmth of the water up to her jawline.

There Kaguya closed her eyes and remained for what felt like a few minutes until peace began to overtake her. However, an overarching suspicion nagged at her immediately upon opening her eyes once more. Perhaps it was her imagination, but the breeze rolling over the top of her head seemed to lack the crispness characteristic of the months early in the year.

Attempting to dispel the distraction, Kaguya allowed her feet to float up and out from under her, her form drifting horizontal in the pool as her long Stygian hair began to flow freely around her. The water encased her ears with a muted hum as her eyelids shut once again, leaving Kaguya to continue her attempts at finding a cleansing calm.

Given the time, eternity would take a definitive toll on anyone cursed with its company.

Beautiful blooming cherry blossoms filled Kaguya’s vision when she allowed herself to cease isolating herself to her thoughts. It was as if the month between the purifying baths in which Kaguya indulged had passed in the blink of an eye. Her close friend and most trusted servant Eirin Yagokoro, who had not been present when Kaguya had initially entered the pool, sat nearby on a fine blanket, admiring both sake and the blooming of the cherry trees. Among her servants, Eirin was the only one who spent no effort controlling the directions of her gaze, meeting Kaguya’s glance with an easy smile, as if there was more to admire this night than alcohol or cherry blossoms or the full moon.

The attention did not offend or embarrass, but Kaguya could not shake the uneasiness welling up inside her. Coming to sit on a platform within the wide pool and bringing her knees to her chest, Kaguya let herself behold the full moon at length, bathing as much in its light as the water around her. Eventually, the intensity of the moonlight caused her to blink and the change in her surroundings was immediately noticeable.

No cherry blossoms.

No Eirin drinking and viewing.

No freshness of Spring filling Kaguya’s nostrils.

The moon still hung mockingly in the sky, if a little off centre from before, as the heat of summer bore down on the bathing area where the chill of winter seemed to be only minutes before. Now the Princess of Eientei was certain something was wrong, though precisely what was still unknown.

Was this the perception of eternity? Could it be that the longer we travel through life the faster it moves, like the growth of mass towards the speed of light? When would such an effect plateau, if ever? Scientific magazines from the outside world that had slipped into Gensokyo posited that in several billion years the sun will engulf the earth. Kaguya would still be alive when that happens, but how long would that period of burning truly seem to her until nothing but darkness remained? Where would she be after the end of the world?

Kaguya floated in the black emptiness for what felt like forever, pondering how all that time had passed in an instant.

Awakening with a start, Kaguya found herself still in the purifying pool of water, the warmth fading with the magic that sustained it. The trees’ leaves around the area had the transformation of Autumn sweeping through them, accompanied by the teasing scent of frost on the subtle breeze.

Enough had been enough.

It was time to get out of the bath.

Finding sandals different than the ones she remembered at the edge of the pool, accompanied by a different kimono, her servants began dressing her after drying her off with towels. Kaguya simmered as her servants worked. Either some entity or some thing was messing with the Princess of Eientei or losing months of time in the blink of an eye was just par for the course to long lived immortals. If this was not some “incident”, as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden would describe it, Kaguya Houraisen would make it one. 

 

With that revelation, the former moon princess left the bath area with the determination to make new memories or rescue her own from whatever vile clutches had stolen them.


End file.
